Die Vereinten Nationen stimmen über die Notwendigkeit ab, das US-Embargo gegen Kuba seit 1992 aufzuheben

In the [Cuban Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution), revolutionaries, led by novice attorney and left-wing activist [Fidel Castro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro), successfully overthrew dictator [Fulgencio Batista](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista) on New Year’s Day, 1959. Batista had highly favored foreign companies (eventually foreigners owned about 70% of the arable land) while brutally repressing the people of his own country, widening the gap between rich and poor. Thus, shortly after taking power, Cuba’s post-revolution government initiates a land reform, eliminating [latifundios](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latifundium) (large estates of land owned by private individuals) and giving control of the land to workers & nationalizing much of the previously foreign-owned land.

However, in response to this land reform, the US government began planning to overthrow the Cuban government. In [this memo](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499) between the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Lester D. Mallory, and the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Roy R. Rubottom Jr., it is stated that “[t]he majority of Cubans support Castro (the lowest estimate I have seen is 50 percent)”, and that the only possible way to end Cuban support of the revolutionaries is the following:

“The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship. If the above are accepted or cannot be successfully countered, it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

In May 1960, Cuba began purchasing arms from the USSR because the US refused to end its arms embargo on Cuba that started under Batista. In July 1960, the US reduced the amount of brown sugar it bought from Cuba, and so the USSR started buying the sugar instead. In June 1960, the US refused to export oil to Cuba, and so Cuba had to buy Soviet crude oil. However, the US saw this as a provacation and so told [Esso](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esso), [Texaco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texaco), and [Shell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell plc) to not refine Soviet oil in their Cuban refineries. Cuba then nationalized the American-owned oil refineries without compensation. The US then implemented an embargo on all trade to Cuba (except for food and medicine), and so in response, the Cuban government nationalized all American businesses without compensation. The US claimed this was unacceptable and severed all diplomatic ties to Cuba in January 1961. After the failed [Bay of Pigs invasion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion), Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist and Cuba gets even closer to the USSR while Kennedy expands the embargo and other restrictions on Cuba (e.g. the travel ban).

The US embargo against Cuba has now been going on for over 60 years, making it the most enduring embargo in all of modern history. Any American citizen, company, or subsidiary of an American company is forbidden from trading with Cuba, and any ship that docks at a Cuban port is forbidden from docking at US ports for six months. Critics argue this makes it a *de facto* blockade as very few people would abandon trading with an economic superpower for a small island like Cuba. According to the UN, the embargo/blockade has led to a loss of [over $130 billion](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-trade-embargo-has-cost-cuba-130-billion-un-says-idUSKBN1I93JM/) for Cuba.

Ever since 1992 (shortly after the USSR collapsed and Cuba lost one of its remaining key trading partners), the UN has [had a resolution every year (except 2020)](https://digitallibrary.un.org/search?ln=en&p=Necessity%20of%20ending%20the%20economic%2C%20commercial%20and%20financial%20embargo%20imposed%20by%20the%20United%20States%20of%20America%20against%20Cuba&f=&rm=&sf=&so=d&rg=50&c=Resource%20Type&c=UN%20Bodies&c=&of=hb&fti=0&fct__1=Voting%20Data&fti=0), supporting the end of the US embargo/blockade. While initially having mixed results, it now largely just has almost every country voting in favor (with the exception of a few abstentions or countries not voting at all) and the US & Israel voting against.

What does the gray part represent?

The annual pointless vote by the UN.

r/YesAmericaBad

The embargo ends when Cuba is ready for it to end. They know the deal.

The biggest reasons for the US still keepig it’s embargo is more due to the fact that 2.5 million Cubans live in the US and the biggest part in Florida. About half of them supports the embargo. That is a way higher share then the US population overall. A big part of them also thinks this is a very important thing and genuinely hate the Cuban government with all their harts.

Due to this fact, especially before when Florida was more of a swing state, there are/was more or less impossible to win Florida. Houndreds of thousands of voters is at stake if you said you wanted to end the embargo. It’s not that Cuba, like during the cold war, makes the US government feel threatend by the situation. So basicly it is the Cuban Americans that are effecting this the most.